‘Tis the season.

My little hometown paper — the New York Times — had a nice piece this weekend about a little hometown tradition — a massive and meticulously detailed nativity display in the beautiful borough of Brooklyn. Coincidentally, it’s at my pastor’s home parish.

Take a look:

When an Italian immigrant asked the pastor of his Brooklyn church 40 years ago if he could create a presepio, or Nativity scene, for his church, the priest happily agreed. So the immigrant, Antonio Vigilante, set about fashioning a modest tableau on a folding table in the back of St. Athanasius Catholic Church in Bensonhurst.

Under the shelter of an open-sided stable filled with farm animals, figurines of Mary and Joseph gazed upon the newborn Jesus in a manger. The three gift-bearing wise men were just outside, having been led to the baby by the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem. “It was very simple — a small little house and a few statues, 10 or 15 statues,” said Mr. Vigilante, who is now 72 and has an accent that carries strong evidence of his upbringing in Avellino, in the Campania region of southern Italy.

And from that simple start has grown an intricate display that has become a vital feature of the holiday season in a parish and neighborhood that still retains an Italian flavor.

Mr. Vigilante’s Nativity scene has grown so big that it has been given its own section in the lower church, covered with drapes for the most of the year. Now 20 feet wide and 16 feet deep, Mr. Vigilante’s creation includes more than 300 figures of shepherds and peasants, 30 houses (some of quite modern design) made of plastic foam and cardboard, and a babbling brook that descends from the rocky heights of papier-mâché hills. “It’s as if the whole world comes to the Lord, comes to Jesus,” said Msgr. David L. Cassato, who is now St. Athanasius’s pastor.

But the original manger scene, the one Mr. Vigilante created all those years ago, remains unchanged from year to year, always at the center of the larger display — a reminder that this work of art has a holy purpose. There is another reason, said Mr. Vigilante. “I like the way it looks,” he said.

The Nativity scene is among the most recognizable symbols of the Christmas season, and displays can be found everywhere from St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City to Wal-Mart, which offers an inflatable version for $90. The Neapolitan Baroque Crèche, an annual feature at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is probably the best known Nativity scene in New York.

By the time Mr. Vigilante, a retired airline maintenance employee, created his first Nativity scene for St. Athanasius — he thinks it was 1965, but cannot remember for sure — he had been immersed in the particularly Italian version of the folk art since childhood.

He recalled how contests were held in his village of Solofra to decide which family had the best presepio. “I remember the year that my grandmother died, no one wanted to do anything,” he said. “On the night before Christmas Eve I stayed up all night making the presepio. In the morning, my mother said, ‘If it wasn’t for you, there wouldn’t be a Christmas this year.’ I will never forget that.”

For those whose roots are in southern Italy, the presepio is a much more important holiday symbol than, say, the Christmas tree, said Joseph Sciorra, associate director of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute at Queens College.

“The Italian press is endlessly bemoaning the loss of the presepio tradition,” he said. “This was what people assembled for Christmas.” Waves of Italian immigrants brought the presepio to the United States, although most Nativity scenes constructed by Italian-Americans were modest displays meant only for family viewing, Mr. Sciorra added.

Mr. Sciorra’s forthcoming book, “Built with Faith: Place Making and the Religious Imagination in Italian New York,” includes a chapter on Italian Nativity scenes in New York, where the practice continues in many pockets of the city. But few can match the sprawling masterpiece at St. Athanasius.

Read on for more.

Photo: Antonio Vigilante adjusts the drapes that cover his elaborate Nativity scene at St. Athanasius Catholic Church in Brooklyn. Photo by Joshua Lott/New York Times
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